


We Only Meet In Dreams

by PictureStories



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 05:02:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PictureStories/pseuds/PictureStories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the depth of true loves kiss magic welled up from deep within Rumpelstiltskin and a small amount of it made its way into Belle’s mind, forging her dreams and forever linking the two of them in a dream world they don’t recognize as being a real connection. This takes place after Skin Deep. Rumpelstiltskin assumes Belle is dead and Belle is trapped in the Queen’s prison cell but whenever they fall asleep at the same time - their dreams touch one another</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unobtainable

She loved him so much… Her mind was dissolving as fragments of thoughts warred against themselves, clinging to the smallest memories of his hair, his habits, the creases of his smile. The walls, the floors were cold and damp in this prison cell but the nightmares were her real prison. Night after night he was there in the prison of her mind –a room of shadows and pooling magic – his presence warm and protective, almost palpable. He always reached for her, always tried to touch her but before her fingers could taste his the purple mist would rise up from the bubbling swarm around their feet and shove her fiercely back away from him into a fitful waking. Tears coursed down her cheek and she cried out with this last defeat. He had spoken to her! Her master and lover –he had spoken to her. She closed her eyes and spread the words out before her like treasured gifts.

“I’m afraid! I’m not brave anymore,” she had cried.

“I know you are. You are my brave Belle.” –the last two words broke upon his lips with the reach of his trembling hand for her cheek. She felt the sting, and the sharp shove into reality. 

If only she could stay awake forever –if only her mind would muddle and lose its way; then she would no longer be haunted. The heaviness of heart she felt following this thought convinces her that this is not the truth. Even in dreams, his presence is sweeter to her than his absence. Collecting her knees to her tear stained chin with quivering arms she closes her eyes and replays the memory. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rumpelstiltskin creased his brow and stood on weak legs pouring over his work deep into the night, terrified of the alternative. Until her fate was revealed to him, he hadn’t been conscious of the unplumbed depth of his emotion towards her – his…love…for her. All day, every day her beauty tiptoed through his mind leaving behind soft footprints of illusive sweetness. There had always been dreams –the same deep, consistent nightmare: himself, alone for eternity in a space of shadow and magic where the world had faded away and his immortality held him prisoner forever. But now it was different, ever since her soft lips had in one day crumpled his defenses and cursed his weak being she had been with him almost every night – trapped in his dream room of shadow and deep magic. SHE was his curse. SHE was his end –the PRICE he paid. 

She stood in the room before him unobtainable. He recognized the impregnable wall of magic surrounding them. He knew he could never touch her, never hold her; only watch her tear stained face and eyes haunted with longing. He knew his own eyes reflected this longing, and he yearned to penetrate the magic keeping them apart, and gather her to his chest. He wanted to draw her cheek to his heart and press endless kisses to the top of her sweet, soft curls; wanted to reassure her that he didn’t mean his hurtful words –that he loved her and always would. He knew the consequences and yet every night he reached for her, coming within a hair’s width of her face or hand before the magic ended his illusion. 

This night, above all others, he hungered for her. Not just for her face and body, but for her words – her mind. In the shadows of the room he strained deep within himself and twisted his dark force with the magic puddled at his feet. He wanted to hear her voice. He could see her lips move and strove with all of his might to knit the magic in the room with his own –calling upon his dark strength to release the notes from her throat. And then he heard it –the softly spoken: “I’m afraid! I’m not brave anymore.” 

Exerting the last of his strength he forced out: “I know you are. You are my brave Belle.” He couldn’t stop himself – couldn’t pull back his fingers that ached for her skin. She shot back from him and the magic flooded forward with furious crashing waves between them.  
He was alone again in his chair. Dripping from head to toe with perspiration and longing.


	2. Mirror...Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the depth of true loves kiss magic welled up from deep within Rumpelstiltskin and a small amount of it made its way into Belle’s mind, forging her dreams and forever linking the two of them in a dream world they don’t recognize as being a real connection. This takes place after Skin Deep. Rumpelstiltskin assumes Belle is dead and Belle is trapped in the Queen’s prison cell but whenever they fall asleep at the same time - their dreams touch one another.

“I know what it’s like to lose someone you love.” Each word dripped from Regina’s brazen red lips with honeyed sweetness. “That’s why I’m going to let you see him whenever you’d like. This mirror is enchanted. With it you can see his face whenever you choose. However,” she crooned oh so softly, “it has no sense of time. The pictures you see may be past or present.” 

Belle gazed at the mirror incredulously –recognizing at once the masked manipulator behind the feigned kindness. But as the ache of loneliness once again enveloped the stone room, when the familiar grip of desperation and madness strangled her thoughts -she reached for it. “Show me Rumpelstiltskin…” she choked into the darkness. 

Every sin was laid bare before her –images of tortured souls who fell to The Dark One’s skillful deceit replayed in the mirror. He preyed on the weakness and pain of men, women, and children. Each day she wept openly over the mirror and each night she saw him in her dreams. Rumpelstiltskin stood before her with vulnerability coursing through his features. There was never shame in his eyes –only honesty and a whisper of something human, something struggling desperately to survive. 

Sometimes he tried to speak to her. She hadn’t heard him speak since that one time – she wasn’t sure she wanted to. How could someone so brutal towards others truly love her the way she knew he did? If she hadn’t kissed him…she never would have known, but she did and now she would never be able to doubt it. She hated his curse –hated seeing the savage look that swallowed his eyes when he bested another victim, but the mirror also had shown glimpses of him in the dark castle, driven by desperation, pouring over his potions in an attempt to find what he loved most in all the world. Sometimes she met the monster in her dreams and sometimes the man, but each warring side of him loved her and reached for her.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When sleep came his starved heart drank in the sight of Belle, the creamy curves of her face and those downy curls that beckoned his touch. Sometimes she simply stood across from him piercing him with lucent blue eyes searching uncomprehendingly into the depths of his own, for meaning and the words he would not say. Some nights she raged at him –his glorious judge: just, radiant, and beautiful –condemning him for his life of sin with piercing looks of righteous indignation. On other nights like this one she shunned him in his own dreams. Rumpelstiltskin watched her in the corner with her back to him, the left side of her face barely visible. His eyes caressed the trembling shoulders and followed rivulets of salty tears down the smooth plain of her cheek. She was trapped in his mind, grieving for his soul and he couldn’t touch her –couldn’t comfort her or give her hope. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This time felt different when she watched him; he was alone in the mirror’s eye. She could see he was trapped in a prison like her own. His dark nest of curls shook furiously with each jerk of his head. His hand flew across a page with bleary speed and he giggled manically, repeating a name over and over again with a wicked sing-song in his voice… “Emma.” She stared at his reflection until sleep overtook her.

“Who is Emma?” Belle mouthed across the waves of inky magic between them that night, but he didn’t seem to hear her any more than ever before. He was trying to tell her something. His hands moved forward and a struggle of power, much like the night she’d heard his voice, stirred the dark sea of purple at her feet. She was frightened and hopeful. What would he say if he prevailed? Would he reach her this time? 

“This is the end, Belle,” anguished words cut through her heart. “I’m so sorry, Belle. I’m so sorry! I love you. I’m so sorry I left you, but I must find him –it’s coming now Belle! Rest in peace, My…”

“Oh god!” Belle’s shriek rent the air as waves of magic crashed through her dreams into the very cell where she sat awake. Stone by stone the room was torn to pieces as magic flooded the prison, ripping through her skin, burning down into her throat and eyes until there was only blackness and nothing to remember.


End file.
